Shtriga

In Albanian folklore a shtriga is a witch who preys upon children by sucking their essence at night, this destroys the child's immune system.But instead of transforming into an owl when she goes for her midnight snack, she is more apt to take the form of a flying insect.

Even recently many Albanians regard the Shtriga as the most common cause of infant deaths.

Traditionally there are several methods effective for defending oneself from shtriga, such as:

a cross made of bone placed at the entrance of a church on Easter Sunday, rendering any Shtriga inside unable to leave. They could then be captured and killed at the threshold as they vainly attempted to pass.

as after draining essence from a victim, the shtriga would generally go off into the woods and regurgitate it, it was believed that soaking a silver coin in that blood, then wrapping it in cloth, it would become an amulet offering permanent protection from any shtriga.

Immortality: by feeding off life force, the Shtrige can live for a long time.

Striga feeding

Drain Spiritus Vitae: Shtriga's can remain immortal by sucking the life force out of childern. The life force that Shtrigas suck out is call Spiritus Vitae with is latin for "Breath of life"

Near Invulnerability: Shtriga's are very difficult to kill. They can't be kill with normal weapons like guns and knives, but Shtrigas can only be killed when it is feeding and then shot with iron bullets.

Shapeshifting: By day a Shtriga can take a human disguise, so that no one won't be able to suspect the witch. At night the Shtriga transform back to it's hag form.

Superhuman Strength: Although most witches have normal human strength, Shriga possess this ability. They can easily overpower humans and lifted them and throw them with great force.

Superhuman Speed: Shtrigas have move faster then humans. They use this ability run to from danger or for defense.